Judge: That’s mad, Ted
Woman assaulted Peruvian love rival and directed tirade of abuse at gardaí while she sat scantily clad on the road in front of her house
A WOMAN who assaulted a Peruvian love rival before telling a responding garda to ‘go f*** yourself’ while being ‘scantily clad’ in the middle of the road was spared a prison sentence yesterday.
Commenting on the events, Judge James McNulty at Macroom District Court remarked: ‘As Father Dougal would say, “That’s mad, Ted.”’
Inspector Anthony Harrington told the court that gardaí were called to a disturbance at a house near the village of Kilmurry, Co Cork, on the night of October 23, 2023.
Garda Tom Daly said that a call was received alleging that an assault had occurred at a residence near Kilmurry and he arrived at the scene with a colleague at 11.30pm.
The officer said that when he arrived he observed debris strewn across the road in front of the house, including clothes, tins of food and household goods.
He said: ‘Sitting in the middle of it was a scantily clad lady in her bare feet smoking a cigarette.’
The woman was later identified as Kelly Mayze, 42, of Coolduff, Kilmurry, Co. Cork.
When Garda Daly asked Ms Mayze to explain the situation, she replied: ‘Go f*** yourself.’
Garda Daly said that Ms Mayze stood up and then fell over and began to ‘lash out with her fists’.
Ms Mayze faced five charges – two for assault, intoxication in a public place, criminal damage, and littering. She pleaded guilty to all except the assaults, which were contested.
Garda Daly said that there was a strong smell of alcohol and a strong smell of cannabis and that Ms Mayze was verbally abusive to him and his colleague.
On entering the house, Garda Daly said he found, in a downstairs bedroom, ‘a very frightened lady with two small children’.
The garda added: ‘She seemed very frightened and she did not have very good English. The gist of it seemed to be that someone had assaulted her.’
Garda Daly said that he then had to leave the house to assist his colleague outside.
When he returned to the front of the house, Ms Mayze was trying to climb in a window and was exposing herself in the process as his colleague was trying to restrain her.
Garda Daly formed the opinion that Ms Mayze was intoxicated to such an extent that she posed a danger to herself and others and he arrested her and handcuffed her for her own safety, he said. She was taken to Macroom Garda Station, where her behaviour was described as very disruptive.
The court also heard from prosecution witness Nessa Keane, the alleged injured party.
Ms Keane, who spoke via a Spanish interpreter, told the court she was originally from Peru in South America but had been in Ireland for 16 years.
She said she was the mother of two small children whose father, James Keane, lived in the house with her and Kelly Mayze at the time of the incident.
She explained that she was married to Mr Keane but they were no longer together and that Mr Keane and Ms Mayze were in a relationship at the time.
She told the court that on the night in question she had received an abusive text message from Ms Mayze and she went to her room to ask her about it. Ms Keane said that Ms Mayze ‘started shouting and acting like a drunk’ and was very aggressive.
She said that she grabbed a shirt that she had tied around her waist shouting ‘that’s my boyfriend’s shirt’.
She added that Ms Mayze later pushed her and shouted abuse at her before going downstairs where she began ‘throwing everything from the kitchen out into the street’. Ms Keane said that her children were very distressed by the behaviour and were crying and ‘hiding in the corner’ of the room.
Defence solicitor Patrick Goold said that Mr Keane had a ‘very confusing way’ of dealing with the two women. He described the domestic situation in the house as ‘a tinderbox’ and said that his client was adamant there was no physical assault.
Ms Mayze told the court that it was Mr Keane whom she was angry with on the night. She claimed she had argued with Ms Keane for ‘less than 10 seconds’ before she went downstairs.
Judge McNulty said he considered Ms Keane’s evidence to be truthful and believable while that of Kelly Mayze was unreliable as she was clearly intoxicated at the time. He said that he found the assault charge proven.
He added: ‘She was intoxicated with alcohol and possibly weed. She was seated, sparsely dressed in the debris in the road. She admitted she was very cross. As Father Dougal would say, “That’s mad, Ted”.’
The court heard that Kelly Mayze had no previous convictions and had spent the past seven days remanded in custody following an outburst in court at an earlier hearing.
Judge McNulty said that in the circumstances a conditional discharge would be appropriate.
He said that the assault was at the ‘very low end of the scale’, adding: ‘She has been in Limerick Prison for seven days and that’s not much fun. The situation she found herself in was not of her making. She reacted badly with drink taken and weed on board. It would be harsh to record a conviction.’
Ms Mayze was released on a three-year conditional discharge with the provision that she agrees to be a good citizen and does not come to Garda attention again.
Exposing herself in the process
Spent past seven days in custody